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THE BEQUEST OF 

DANIEL MURRAY 

WASHINGTON. D. C. 
1925 



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GARRISON 
CENTENARY 

1A05 December Tenth 1905 




The truth Is, he who commences any reform which at fast becomes one of transcendent 
importance and is crowned with victory, is aiways ill judged and unfairly estimated. At the 
outset he is ioolced upon with contempt, and t-eated in the most opprobrious manner, as 
a wild fanatic or a dangerous disorganizer. in due time the cause grows and advances to 
its sure triumph; and in proportion as it nears the goal, the popular estimate of his 
character changes, tilt finally excessive panegyric is substituted for outrageous abuse. 
The praise on the one hand, and the defamation on the other, are equally unmerited, in 
the clear light of Reason, it will be seen that he simply stood up to discharge a duty 
which he owed to his God, to hit fellow-men, to the land of his nativity. 

W. L. GARRISON, 1851. 



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WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 

Born in Newburyport, Mass., December 10, 1805 
Died in New York City, May 24, 1879 



(barrison (TentenarY 

\S05 December X3entb 1905 

The following biographical sketch of William Lloyd Garrison, and the 
accompanying extracts from his writings, have been prepared for the use of those 
who are proposing to celebrate the centenary of the great emancipator's birth, which 
comes on Sunday, December loth. It is hoped that churches, colleges and schools 
throughout the land, and that literary and other organizations, will observe the 
day by appropriate services which shall recall to our people the great cause for 
which he and his brave associates labored, and of which they lived to see the 
triumph. 

The exercises might fitly include selections from the subjoined account of his 
life, of the noble Declaration of Sentiments which he wrote on founding the 
American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, and of some of the inspiring passages 
from his speeches and writings which so well reveal the pure and lofty character 
of the man. We would offer the following as a suggestive program. 



43lrooiram 



1. Music 

2. Scripture Reading 

3. Prayer 

4. Music 

5. Presiding Officer's Remarks 

6. Biographical Oration (Ten minutes) 

7. Music 

8. Garrison as a Journalist (Ten minutes) 

9. Words of Garrison (20 minutes) 

Selections from Address and words of Garrison given in the Garrison 
Centenary Leaflet. These should be recited by at least six young people. 

This program is simply suggestive. The material for it may be found in the 
Garrison Centenary Leaflet. It is not intended that this whole leaflet should be 
given at any one exercise but that Churches, Colleges, Schools, Literary and other 
associations should treat it as a source from which the persons selected may gather 
the proper material. It is thought wise that the pastors of churches, presidents 
and principals of institutions, literary associations, etc., should appoint the persons 
to take the several parts of the program. 

This leaflet was compiled by Archibald H. Grimke, author of "Life of 
Garrison," with the assistance of Mr. Frank J, Garrison, son of William Lloyd 
Garrison. 

Copies of the leaflet may be had of Hugh M. Browne, Cheyney, Pa., with no 
other cost than that of postage. 



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TLLIAM LLOYD GARRISON was born in Newburyport, Mass., 
December 10, 1805. No stream rises higher than its source, 
and the rule like mother like child may be laid down as car- 
dinal in the school of character. Certainly this rule was never 
better illustrated than in the life of our illustrious subject, 
whose mother was the paramount influence in the evolution 
of his extraordinary character. As she was in many traits so 
was he. All that was best in him in a moral sense he owed to her. For 
morally she was a rare woman and physically a well-nigh perfect one. A 
beautiful body in her case enfolded a no less beautiful soul. This woman 
bad a nature almost Puritanical in its abhorrence of sin, and in its stern 
and uncompromising strength of moral conviction. From a girl and during 
all her life she feared to do wrong more than she feared any man. With 
this supremacy of the moral sense there went along in her singular firmness 
of purpose and independence of will and character. 

Such was the woman who was the mother of the grandest moral hero 
of the last century. Deserted by her husband for some unknown cause when 
I loyd was three years old, she was compelled thereafter to battle alone with 
poverty for her three little ones. But her youngest boy was ever her comfort, 
her little man. His baby bands were full of helpful acts for her, and his 
boy's heart gave to her all its love and devotion. 

His school days came to an end before he was nine years old. He was 
first put to learn the shoemaker's trade, and afterward that of the cabinet- 
maker's. But for the first the boy proved too slight, and for the second he 
had no heart. Meantime poverty and experience were teaching the little 
fellow lessons of life which he could not have learned in a grammar school, 
viz.: a certain early acquaintance with himself and the workaday world 
about him. From that hard school in which poverty and experience were 
the teachers, and in the year 1818, the boy got his first certificate of grad- 
uation and entered forthwith on his secondary training under the same 
rough but effective tutelage. For at the age of thirteen he went into the 
office of the Newburyport Herald to learn to set type. At last the boy's hands 
had found work which his boy's heart did joy to do. He mastered quickly 
the copositor's art. As he set up the thoughts of others he soon discovered 
thoughts of his own demanding utterance. The printer's apprentice felt 
presently the stirring of new life within him. A passion for self-improvement 
took possession of him. He began to read the English classics, to study 
American history, to follow the currents of national politics. His intelligence 
quickened marvelously, and the maturing processes of his mind were sudden 
and swift in their work. Almost before one is aware of it, the boy in 
years has become a man in character and knowledge. Even in his teens 
he revealed qualities which seemed to propbesy for him a future of distinc- 
tion. He possessed a most winning personality. His energy and geniality, his 
keen sense of humor, his social and buoyant disposition and his positive 
and opinionated temper were sources of popular strength to him. People 
were strongly drawn to him. His friends were devoted to him. He had that 
quality called magnetic, or the gift of attracting others and of maintaining 
over them the ascendancy of his ideas and genius. 

At the age of tweny his apprenticeship in the Herald office ended. 
Thereupon, with true Yankee pluck and enterprise, he proceeded to do for 
himself what for seven years he had helped to do for another, viz.: publish 
a newspaper. With a brave heart he made now his first venture on the 
uncertain sea of journalism, became in fact publisher and editor of a wide 
awake sheet which he named fitly enough "The Free Press." "It shall be 
subservient to no party or body of men" he announced in its initial number, 
"and neither the craven fear of loss, nor the threats of the disappointed, 
nor the influence of power, shall ever awe one single opinion into silence." 
This was morally superb, but according to the low ethics of the business 
world then, and now too. for that matter, it was poor journalism. In both 
respects, however, it took with absolute accuracy the measure of the man. 
As a mental likeness it is simply perfect. At no time during his subsequent 



career did it cease to be an exact counterfeit presentment of his moral 

f .V|Q T»Q pf ^T» 

It was the young editor and publisher of the "Free Press" who first 
discovered the poetical genius of Whittier, and gave to the public through 
the columns of that paper the earliest poetical productions of the Quaker 
poet. The paper did not prosper, and Garrison abandoned the venture toward 
the close of the year and moved to Boston in search of work. There for 
several months he earned a living as a compositor. But in January, 1828, 
he found more congenial employment when he became editor of the "National 
Philanthropist," a reformatory paper devoted to the cause of temperance. 
As a moral reformer Garrison got two things out of his experience as editor 
of this paper, which w^ere more to him than silver and gold, which he did 
not get out of it. The first of these things was the invincible faith which 
he acquired in the reformatory pow-er of one upright and uncompromising 
man in conflict with the low appetites and vices of the multitude, and the 
second thing which he got out of it w^as a knowledge of the immense utility 
of woman as an agent in the regeneration of society. His editorial articles 
in the "National Philanthropist" on "Female Influence" may be said to have 
( ontained the promise and potency of the Woman's Christian Temperance 
Union of to-day, as they certainly held the seed out of which were to grow 
a few years later the female anti-slavery societies of New England and the 
North. 

While editing the "National Philanthropist" Garrison met for the first 
time Benjamin Lundy, that indefatigable friend of the slave. "My heart was 
deeply grieved at the gross abomination," he said, "I heard the wail of the 
captive, I felt his pang of distress, and the iron entered my soul." The slave 
iron had indeed entered the soul of this saintly man, and through his 
presence in Boston it was now to enter the soul of a greater than he. The 
meeting of these two Providential men in an obscure boarding-house in 
Boston in 1828, we know as we look back at it now, was in reality the birth 
of a new era in the Republic. 

Garrison made his third venture in journalism in October, 1828, when 
he began to edit the "Journal of the Times" at Bennington, Vt., in the interest 
of John Quincy Adams' candidacy for reelection as President. But although 
deeply concerned in the reelection of President Adams, the young editor did 
not forget the cause of the slave. Engrossed as he naturally was in the 
success of his candidate, he nevertheless took time and space enough in 
his paper to reassure his friend Lundy in respect to his unchanged attitude 
on the subject of slavery. "Before God and our country," he wrote, "we 
"give our pledge that the liberation of the enslaved Africans shall always 
"be uppermost in our pursuits. The people of New England are interested in 
"this matter, and they must be aroused from their lethargy by a trumpet 
"call. They shall not quietly slumber while we have the management of a 
"press, or strength to hold a pen." 

When Lundy saw that the slavery question had acquired ascendancy 
over all other subjects in the mind of Garrison, he set out on foot, staff in 
hand, from Baltimore in true Apostolic fashion, to join his young friend at 
Bennington. There among the jrreen mountains these two men of God met 
and conferred. It was agreed between them that Garrison should go to 
Baltimore to edit Lundy's little paper with the big name, "The Genius of 
Universal Emancipation," and that Lundy should devote himself to increas- 
ing its circulation. "I am invited to occupy a broader field." said Garrison 
in his valedictory in the "Journal of the Times." "and to engage in a higher 
enterprise; that field embraces the whole country — that enterprise is in 
behalf of the slave population." The causes of temperance and peace, which 
he had also espoused, came in likewise for earnest parting words, but they 
had clearly declined in his regard to a place of secondary interest and 
importance to the subject of slavery. Those were still great questions with 
him, but this one was then the supreme question — had in fact become his 
cause. 

Before taking up his duties as editor of the "Genius" Garrison's anti- 
slavery views underwent in one respect a momentous change, for he dis- 
carded on his way to Baltimore the popular and inoffensive doctrine of gradual 
emancipation and adopted in its place the radical and revolutionary principle 
of immediate and unconditional emancipation. This was the startling 



doctrine which Garrison carried with him to Baltimore and into the columns 
of Lundy's paper. This troubled the older reformer who was not prepared 
to assume responsibility for so radical a treatment of the slavery question. 
He wanted peace, but he had soon cause to see that immediatism as preached 
by the new editor was no olive branch, but rather a flaming sword which 
was sure to stir the world of property to its center, and to plunge brother 
and brother into deadly strife. With Quaker-like prudence he proposed 
therefore to Garrison a change which would place the responsibility of each 
where it rightly belonged. "Thee may put thy initials to thy articles, and 
I will put my initials to mine, and each will bear his own burden," he said. 
And so it was agreed. 

Such tremendous moral earnestness, as was Garrison's on the slavery 
question, could not long move about freely in a slave city like Baltimore 
without coming into collision with the slave power, and this is exactly what 
:happened when the Genius of Universal Emancipation launched itself 
against Francis Todd, a merchant of Newburyport, Mass., because a vessel 
belonging to him had taken on board at Baltimore a cargo of seventy-five 
slaves for the New Orleans slave-market. "It is no worse," said Garrison 
in "The Genius," "to fit out piratical cruisers or to engage in the foreign 
slave-trade, than to pursue a similar trade along our coast; and the men 
who have the wickedness to participate therein for the purpose of keeping 
up wealth should be sentenced to solitary confinement for life; they are 
the enemies of their own species — highway robbers, and murderers; and 
their final doom will be, unless they speedily repent, to occupy the lowest 
depths of perdition." 

There followed quickly upon this moral outburst of the young reformer 
an indictment of him by the grand jury of Baltimore for uttering "A gross 
and malicious libel" upon that Christian gentleman, Mr. Francis Todd, and 
his ship's master, Captain Nicholas Brown. Garrison was tried, convicted 
and sentenced to pay a fine of fifty dollars and costs, which together 
amounted to more than one hundred dollars — more money probably than he 
had ever had at any one time in his life. As he was not able to pay this 
sum he was detained as a prisoner during seven weeks in the Baltimore 
jail. At the end of that time Arthur Tappan, a merchant prince and philan- 
thropist of New York City, satisfied the penalty of the slave court, and 
effected the release of the guiltless prisoner. Garrison's was truly a "pine- 
and-faggot" spirit, which unjust power could neither bend nor break. The 
whole aroused moral nature of the man burst now into fiame and revolt. 
Within "gloomy walls close pent" he had warbled blithe as a bird of a free- 
dom which slave judges and juries could not reach, nor iron bolts confine; 
while anon arose his voice from the jail in a song of invincible faith in his 
cause, of solemn gladness in his sufferings — joyously as Saint Paul might 
Vave done under similar circumstances, how 

"A martyr's crown is richer than a king's! 

"Think it an honor with thy Lord to bleed, 
"And glory 'midst intensest sufferings." 

Garrison's editorship of the "Genius" of Lundy ended virtually with his 
imprisonment. After his release he determined to make his fourth venture 
as a journalist, and so on January 1, 1831, he began in Boston the publica- 
tion of the "Liberator." In point of size the new organ was insignificant 
enough, measuring but 14x9 inches. It did not seem, judging from its 
appearance, that its voice could possibly reach beyond the walls of the mean 
chamber where it first saw the light. The very paper on which it was 
printed was bought on credit and set up in borrowed type. For eighteen 
months thereafter its brave editor and his faithful associate, Isaac Knapp, 
slept on the floor of the room where it was composed and printed, toiled at 
the case and the editorial table fourteen hours a day, and lived chiefly on 
bread and milk, a few cakes and a little fruit, and was alas "On short 
commons at that." But from this poor young man in his dingy room, there 
went forth a voice for freedom, for national righteousness such as had not 
before been heard in America. "I will be as harsh as truth," he said in the 
first number of the "Liberator," "and as uncompromising as justice. On 
this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write with moderation. 
* * * I am in earnest — I -will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will 
not retreat a single inch — and I will be heard." 



Martin Luther's "Here I take my stand" was not braver than the "I will 
be heard" of William Lloyd Garrison. It did not seem within the range 
of human probability that a young man without reputation, without influence, 
without social or political connections, without money and standing alone 
\^ould ever be able to make good those audacious and sublime words. But 
this the young reformer did actually do within a few months only after he 
had uttered them. Within a few months the whole country, North and South 
alike, was talking on the subject of slavery and the "Liberator." Almost at 
once proofs came to Garrison that he was heard by the people of the North, 
and by the people of the South. There were snarling criticisms by New 
England editors, animadverting on his "Violent and intemperate attacks on 
slave-holders;" savage growls from the South against the "Liberator" as a 
"scandalous and incendiary budget of sedition." Letters breathing violence 
against him reached the office of the "Liberator" from the South. Southern 
grand juries indicted the editor, steps were taken by at least one southern 
governor looking to his extradition, while the Legislature of Georgia offered 
a reward of $5000 for his apprehension and conviction. Within one year 
from the first issue of the "Liberator" the whole country had heard the 
voice of its brave editor. 

Still "help came but slowly" to him. With a single instrument he had 
thrown the South into widespread alarm, and thawed the apathy of the North 
Into widespread and angry attention. But none knew better than he that 
while all this was well, it was by no means enough. Instantly powerful as 
he had proved one paper to be, alone it was inadequate to the work of pro- 
longed anti-slavery agitation, which the ultimate abolishment of the evil 
rendered necessary. Back of him and the "Liberator" he needed numbers, 
an organized movement, and coadjutators like Aaron and Hur to hold up 
his arms in the long battle with slavery. Therefore with the instinct of 
genius he proceeded to organize the movement started by him. This he 
effected in Boston a year after the first appearance of the "Liberator," when 
the New England Anti-Slavery Society was formed by himself and eleven of 
his disciples. Within the year following this event the American Anti-Slavery 
Association was organized at Philadelphia. Other societies sprang from 
these all over the North, and with them the agitation against slavery, begun 
single-handed by Garrison, became an organized movement pushing its 
moral forces everywhere through the free states with terrible earnestness. 
Garrison thus equipped with his organized freedom power pitted himself 
with relentless purpose against the organized slave-power of the Union. 
And the battle thereafter raged along the whole line in church and state, 
and throughout the social world and that other world of business, too. And 
everywhere Garrison was the heart of the agitation, the master-spirit of the 
abolition movement. 

At this grave crisis in their history it may be well for the colored people 
of America to mark carefully the means employed by Garrisonian abilitionism 
In Its struggle with the evil of slavery more than seventy years ago. 
These means were first, petitions to Congress on the subject of Slavery; 
second, the printing and circulation of anti-slavery literature; and third, 
the anti-slavery agent or lecturer who went up and down through the free 
states gathering facts and preaching the gospel of immediate and uncon- 
ditional emancipation. Such were the simple means which became, in the 
hands of the anti-slavery societies, that unequalled machinery by which they 
operated on public opinion, and through which they produced moral and 
political results revolutionary and prodigious. 

In September, 1834. the reformer received the greatest individual help 
which ever came to him during his life, when he was united in marriage to 
Miss Helen Eliza Benson, a daughter of George Benson, a venerable philan- 
thropist of Rhode Island. She was indeed a rare woman, wonderfully 
adapted in every way to be the wife of such a man. And he needed now, if 
ever man did need it, a home such as Mrs. Garrison made for him, in which 
to find refuge from the storm of hate and persecution which was now beating 
with increasing fury upon his devoted head. For the rapid spread of the 
slavery agitation alarmed and enraged the South, alarmed and enraged also 
the North. And when the former demanded^ of the latter its suppression, 
forcible suppression of the agitation was thereupon attempted throughout 
the free states. The Instrument employed for this purpose was the mob. 



Mobs broke out in one state and then in another. From Vermont to Illinois 
the Northern people went mob-mad. There advanced in terrible succession 
popular inundations of violence which assailed the freedom of assembly, the 
freedom of the press, and the right of free speech on the subject of slavery. 
The hated abolitionists had then no rights, either personal or property, 
v/hich the rest of the nation felt bound to respect. All were ruthlessly 
attacked, as in the case of the burning of Pennsylvania Hall in Philadelphia, 
the destruction of James G. Birney's press in Cincinnati, and the murder of 
Elijah P. Lovejoy at Alton, 111. 

Mr. Garrison was attacked by this wild catlike spirit of the times in 
Boston itself, and escaped barely with his life. He had invited his friend, 
George Thompson, the famous English abolitionist and orator to assist the 
movement against slavery in America. And Thompson had crossed the 
water for that purpose, and was rendering aid to the agitation with sur- 
passing eloquence. This interference of a foreigner in the domestic affairs 
of the States fired the worst passions of the city against him. He had been 
engaged to address the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society on October 21, 
1835. But his danger was so great that he was advised to leave the city 
instead. Garrison agreed to take his friend's place, and upon his head the 
wrath of the Broad Cloth Mob broke that day with terrific violence. He 
was hunted from one building to another and was at last seized and dragged 
through the streets with a rope about his neck. After a terrible struggle, 
he was rescued from the clutches of the mob and taken into the City Hall. 
Thence he was taken by a ruse, and after a thrilling pursuit by the mob 
he was committed to Leverett Street Jail, as the only place in the city which 
w^as able to afford him protection from his enemies. 

Throughout these years of mob violence and martyrdom the prophet did 
not flinch, or falter, or retreat a single inch from the position which he had 
taken. The fires of pro-slavei-y persecution could not burn out of his breast 
the love of his fellow men albeit they were slaves, nor singe the single 
sublime purpose of his inconquerable will. The South put a heavy price upon 
his head one day, but the next be faced it with the same stern and uncom- 
promising message of justice and freedom. Boston mobbed him one week 
but the next he confronted her as before, the same grand and commanding 
man of God. 

From 1835 to 1860 the history of the moral movement against slavery 
in America is the history of this one man and his great coadjutors like 
Wendell Phillips, Theodore D. Weld, Parker Pillsbury, Frederick Douglass, 
Theodore Parker, Lucretia Mott, Stephen and Abby Kelly Foster, the sisters 
Grimk6, Samuel E. Sewall, Ellis Gray Loring, Maria Weston Chapman, 
David Lee and Lydia Maria Child, Francis Jackson, Samuel J. May and Sam- 
uel May, Edmund Quincy, Charles C. Burleigh, Oliver Johnson, Henry I. Bow- 
ditch, and Lucy Stone. It was Garrison who made Abraham Lincoln possible, 
and it was his principles of freedom which finally triumphed in the War of 
the Rebellion, and penned by the hand of the great President the Emanci- 
pation Proclamation. Throughout the war the great abolitionist leader 
supported with all his might the cause of the Union, and held up the arms 
of Lincoln. And when the war closed, Lincoln, recognizing the supreme 
part which Garrison had played in the slavery struggle, invited him to be 
present with his old friend George Thompson as the guest of the newly 
restored Union, at the reraising of the national flag over Fort Sumter. Well 
does the writer recall this visit to Charleston of Mr. Garrison, how he 
addressed the colored people in their public meetings, and how they in turn 
poured at his feet such manifestations of love and gratitude as have rarely 
crowned the labors of a reformer. 

The world service of these labors for humanity was fitly recognized on 
the occasion of Mr. Garrison's visit to England in 1867. At a notable break- 
fast given in his honor in london, and which was attended by many illus- 
trious men, John Bright, who presided, after referring to our Civil War, 
remarked: "That probably history has no sadder, and yet. if we take a 
different view, I may say, also, probably no brighter page. To Mr. Garrison 
more than to any other man this is due: his is the creation of that opinion 
which has made slavery hateful, and which has made freedom possible in 
America. His name is venerated in his owm country, venerated where not 
long ago it was a name of obloquy and reproach. His name is venerated in 



this country and in Europe wheresoever Christianity softens the hearts and 
lessens the sorrows of men." 

But John Stuart Mills' address was perhaps the speech of the occasion. 
He found two lessons in Mr. Garrison's life: 

"The first lesson is: Aim at something great; at things which are 
difficult (and there is no great thing which is not difficult). Do not pare 
down your undertaking to what you can hope to see successful in the next 
few years, or in the years of your own life. * * * The other lesson which 
it appears to me important to enforce, among the many that may be drawn 
from our friend's life is this: If you aim at something noble, and succeed 
in it, you will generally find that you have succeeded not in that alone. 
A hundred other good and noble things which you never dreamed of will 
have been accomplished by the way, and the more certainly, the sharper and 
more agonizing has been the struggle which preceded the victory * * *^ 
This, then, is an additional item of the debt which America and mankind owe 
to Mr. Garrison and his noble associates; and it is well calculated to deepen 
our sense of the truth which his whole career most strikingly illustrates, — 
that though our best directed efforts may often seem wasted and lost, nothing 
come of them that can be pointed to and distinctly identified as a definite 
gain to humanity; though this may happen ninety-nine times in every hun- 
dred, the hundredth time the result may be so great and dazzling that we had 
never dared to hope for it, and should have regarded him who had predicted 
it to us as sanguine beyond the bounds of mental sanity. So has it been 
with Mr. Garrison." 

Garrison's abolitionism went the whole length of the humanity of the 
colored race, and all that that implies in a color-prejudice ridden country like 
this. The poorest or most ignorant of them, whether bond or free, were his 
brothers and sisters. From first to last he regarded them as bone of his bone 
and blood of his blood, as children with him of a common Father. He never 
looked down on them as wanting in any essential respect the manhood which 
was his. To him they were men and women, entitled to freedom, entitled 
besides to equality of civil and political rights in the state, equality and 
fraternity in the church, equality and fraternity everywhere. North and South 
alike. This is the doctrine which he preached, this is the doctrine which he 
practised. In not a single instance was he ever found separating himself 
on account of race from his brother in black. He drew no color line in 
public, he drew none in private, saying to the Negro, "Thus far but no 
farther," not even socially. He went into their homes and was in all things 
one with them; and they went into his home in like manner. He forgot that 
he was white, forgot that they were black, forgot the pride of race, forgot 
the stigma of race in the tie of human kinship and need, which bound him 
indissolubly to them. If he possessed what they did not have, viz.: the 
chance of man in society, the rights of a citizen in the country, the equality 
of a brother in the church, this did not make him feel himself better than 
they, but filled him instead with indignation at the wrong done them, with 
passionate sympathy and a burning desire to make his own rights and 
opportunities the full measure of theirs. 

As he lived and loved and labored, so he died, true to the great principles 
of liberty, justice and human brotherhood. Indeed his last written word to 
the public was in defence of the freedom and citizenship of the colored people 
of the South against the violent hostility of that section toward them. With 
dying breath he blew a last trumpet blast for "Liberty and equal rights for 
each, for all, and forever, wherever the lot of man is cast within our broad 
domains." And on May 24, 1879, the then aged prophet and friend of man 
was gathered to his fathers at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Henry Villard, 
in New York City. 

"Men of a thousand shifts and wiles look here! 
See one straightforward conscience put in pawn 
To win a world; see the obedient sphere 
By bravery's simple gravitation drawn! 

Shall we not heed the lesson taught of old, 
And by the Present's lips repeated still. 
In our own single manhood to be bold, 
Fortressed in conscience and impregnable Will?" 

8 




^^e Mission of tl)e TCiberator 
<&arrUon*5 Salutatory. 1831 



N THE month of August I issued proposals for publishing "The 
Liberator" in Washington City, but the enterprise, though 
hailed in different sections of the country, was palsied by pub- 
lic indifference. Since that time, the removal of the Genius of 
Universal Emancipation to the Seat of Government has ren- 
dered less imperious the establishment of a similar periodical 
in that quarter. 
During my recent tour for the purpose of exciting the minds of the 
people by a series of discourses on the subject of slavery, every place that 
I visited gave fresh evidence of the fact, that a greater revolution in 
public sentiment was to be effected in the free States — and particularly in 
New England — than at the South. I found contempt more bitter, opposition 
more active, detraction more relentless, prejudice more stubborn, and apathy 
more frozen, than among slave-owners themselves. Of course, there were 
individual exceptions to the contrary. This state of things aflaicted, but did 
not dishearten me. I determined, at every hazard, to lift up the standard 
of emancipation in the eyes of the nation, within sight of Bunker Hill and in 
the birthplace of liberty. That standard is now unfurled, and long may it 
float, unhurt by the spoliations of time or the missiles of a desperate foe — 
yea, till every chain be broken, and every bondman set free! Let Southern 
oppressors tremble — let their secret abettors tremble, let their Northern 
apoligists tremble — let all the enemies of the persecuted blacks tremble. 

I deem the publication of my original Prospectus unnecessary, as it has 
obtained a wide circulation. The principles therein inculcated will be stead- 
ily pursued in this paper, excepting that I shall not array myself as the 
political partisan of any man. In defending the great cause of human rights, 
I wish to derive the assistance of all religions and of all parties. 

Assenting to the "self-evident truth" maintained in the American Declara- 
tion of Independence, "that all men are created equal, and endowed by their 
Creator with certain inalienable rights — among which are life, liberty and the 
pursuit of happiness," I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfran- 
chisement of our slave population. In Park Street Church, on the Fourth of 
July, 1829, in an address on slavery, I unreflectingly assented to the popular 
but pernicious doctrine of gradual abolition. I seize this opportunity to make 
a full and unequivocal recantation, and thus publicly to ask pardon of my 
God, of my country, and of my brethren, the poor slaves, for having uttered 
a sentiment so full of timidity, injustice and absurdity. A similar recantation, 
from my pen, was published in the Genius of Universal Emancipation, at 
Baltimore, in September, 1829. My conscience is now satisfied. 

I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is 
there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompro- 
mising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, 
with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a 
moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of 
the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire 
into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like 
the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will 
not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the 
people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten 
the resurrection of the dead. 

It is pretended that I am retarding the cause of emancipation by the 
coarseness of my invective and the precipitancy of my measures. The charge 
is not true. On this question my influence, — humble as it is, — is felt at this 
moment to a considerable extent, and shall be felt in coming years — not 
perniciously, but beneficially — not as a curse, but as a blessing; and posterity 
will bear testimony that I was right. I desire to thank God, that he enables 
me to disregard "the fear of man which bringeth a snare," and to speak 
his truth in' its simplicity and power. And here I close with this fresh 
dedication : 



/ 



"Oppression! I have seen thee, face to face, 
And met thy cruel eye and cloudy brow; 
But thy soul-withering glance I fear not now — 
For dread to prouder feelings doth give place 
Of deep abhorrence! Scorning the disgrace 
Of slavish knees that at thy footstool bow, 
I also kneel — but with far other vow; 
Do hail thee and thy herd of hirelings base; — 
I swear, while life-blood warms my throbbing veins, 
Still to oppose and thwart, with heart and hand. 
Thy brutalising sway — till Afric's chains 
Are burst, and Freedom rules the rescued land, — 
Trampling Oppression and his iron rod: 
Such is the vow I take— so HELP ME GOD!" 

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
Boston, January 1, 1831. 




q \lJ y-fr^ 



to 



iDeclaralion of Sentiments, 1833 




HE Convention assembled in the city of Philadelphia to organize 
a National Anti-Slavery Society, promptly seized the oppor- 
tunity to promulgate the following Declaration of Sentiments, 
as cherished by them in relation to the enslavement of one- 
sixth portion of the American people. 

More than fifty-seven years have elapsed since a band of 
patriots convened in this place to devise measures for the 
deliverance of this country from a foreign yoke. The corner-stone upon 
which they founded the Temple of Freedom was broadly this — "that all men 
are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
inalienable rights; that among these are life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of 
happiness." At the sound of their trumpet-call, three millions of people rose 
up as from the sleep of death, and rushed to the strife of blood; deeming it 
more glorious to die instantly as freemen, than desirable to live one hour 
as slaves. They were few in number — poor in resources; but the honest 
conviction that Truth, Justice, and Right were on their side, made them 
invincible. 

We have met together for the achievement of an enterprise without 
which that of our fathers is incomplete; and which, for its magnitude, 
solemnity, and probable results upon the destiny of the world, as far tran- 
scends theirs as moral truth does physical force. 

In purity of motive, in earnestness of zeal, in decision of purpose, in 
intrepidity of action, in steadfastness of faith, in sincerity of spirit, we 
would not be inferior to them. 

Their principles led them to wage war against their oppressors, and to 
spill human blood like water, in order to be free. Ours forbid the doing of 
evil that good may come, and lead us to reject, and to entreat the oppressed 
to reject, the use of all carnal weapons for deliverance from bondage; relying 
solely upon those which are spiritual, and mighty through God to the pulling 
down of strongholds. 

Their measures were physical resistance — the marshalling in arms — the 
hostile array — the mortal encounter. Ours shall be such only as the opposi- 
tion of moral purity to moral corruption — the destruction of error by the 
potency of truth — the overthrow of prejudice by the power of love — and the 
abolition of slavery by the spirit of repentance. 

Their grievances, great as they were, were trifling in comparison with 
the wrongs and sufferings of those for whom we plead. Our fathers were 
never slaves — never bought and sold like cattle — never shut out from the 
light of knowledge and religion — never subjected to the lash of brutal task- 
masters. 

But those for whose emancipations we are striving — constituting at the 
present time at least one-sixth part of our countrymen — are recognized by 
law, and treated by their fellow-beings, as marketable commodities, as goods 
and chattels, as brute beasts; are plundered daily of the fruits of their toil 
without redress; really enjoy no constitutional nor legal protection from 
licentious and murderous outrages upon their persons; and are ruthlessly 
torn asunder — the tender babe from the arms of its frantic mother — the 
heart-broken wife from her weeping husband — at the caprice or pleasure of 
irresponsible tyrants. For the crime of having a dark complexion, they suffer 
the pangs of hunger, the infliction of stripes, the ignominy of brutal servi- 
tude. They are kept in heathenish darkness by laws expressly enacted to 
make their instruction a criminal offence. 

These are the prominent circumstances in the condition of more than 
two millions of our people, the proof of which may be found in thousands 
of indisputable facts and in the laws of the slave-holding States. 

Hence we maintain — that, in view of the civil and religious privileges of 
this nation, the guilt of its oppression is unequalled by any other on the face 
of the earth; and, therefore, that it is bound to repent instantly, to undo the 
heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free. 

We further maintain — that no man has a right to enslave or imbrute his 
brother — to hold or acknowledge him, for one moment, as a piece of mer- 



chandise — to keep back his hire by fraud — or to brutalize his mind, by deny- 
ing him the means of intellectual, social and moral improvement. 

The right to enjoy liberty is inalienable. To invade it is to usurp the 
prerogative of Jehovah. Every man has a right to his own body — to the 
products of his own labor — to the protection of law — and to the common 
advantages of society. It is piracy to buy or steal a native African, and 
subject him to servitude. Surely, the sin is as great to enslave an American 
as an African. 

Therefore we believe and affirm — that there is no difference. In principle, 
between the African slave trade and American slavery: 

That very American citizen who retains a human being in involuntary 
bondage as his property, is, according to Scripture (Ex. XXI. 16), a man- 
stealer: 

That the slaves ought instantly to be set free, and brought under the 
protection of law: 

That if they had lived from the time of Pharaoh down to the present 
period, and had been entailed through successive generations, their right to 
be free could never have been alienated, but their claims would have con- 
stantly risen in solemnity: 

That all those laws which are now in force, admitting the right of 
slavery, are therefore, before God, utterly null and void; being an audacious 
usurpation of the Divine prerogative, a daring infringement on the law of 
nature, a base overthrow of the very foundations of the social compact, a 
complete extinction of all the relations, endearments and obligations of 
mankind, and a presumptuous transgression of all the holy commandments; 
and that therefore they ought instantly to be abrogated. 

We further believe and affirm — that all persons of color who possess the 
qualifications which are demanded of others ought to be admitted forthwith 
to the enjoyment of the same privileges, and the exercise of the same 
prerogatives, as others; and that the paths of preferment, of wealth, and of 
intelligence, should be opened as widely to them as to persons of a white 
complexion. 

We maintain that no compensation should be given to the planters 
emancipating their slaves: 

Because it would be a surrender of the great fundamental principle, that 
man cannot hold property in man. 

Because slavery is a crime, and therefore is not an article to be sold. 

Because the holders of slaves are not the just proprietors of what they 
claim; freeing the slaves is not depriving them of property, but restoring it 
to its rightful owner; it is not wronging the master, but righting the slave — 
restoring him to himself: 

Because immediate and general emancipation would only destroy nomi- 
nal, not real, property; it would not amputate a limb or break a bone of the 
slaves, but, by infusing motives into their breasts, would make them doubly 
valuable to the masters as free laborers; and 

Because, if compensation is to be given at all, it should be given to the 
outraged and guiltless slaves, and not to those who have plundered and 
abused them. 

We regard as delusive, cruel and dangerous any scheme of expatriation 
which pretends to aid, either directly or indirectly, in the emancipation of 
the slaves, or to be a substitute for the immediate and total abolition of 
slavery. 

We fully and unanimously recognize the sovereignty of each State, to 
legislate exclusively on the subject of the slavery which is tolerated within 
its limits; we concede that Congress, under the present national compact, 
has no right to interfere with any of the slave States in relation to this 
momentous subject: 

But we maintain that Congress has a right, and is solemnly bound, to 
suppress the domestic slave trade between the several States, and to abolish 
slavery in those portions of our territory which the Constitution has placed 
under its exclusive jurisdiction. 

We also maintain that there are, at the present time, the highest obliga- 
tions resting upon the people of the free States to remove slavery by moral 
and political action, as prescribed in the Constitution of the United States. 
They are now living under a pledge of their tremendous physical force, to 



fasten the galling fetters of tyranny upon the limbs of millions in the South- 
ern States; they are liable to be called at any moment to suppress a general 
insurrection of the slaves; they authorize the slaveowner to vote for three- 
fifths of his slaves as property, and thus enable him to perpetuate his oppres- 
sion; they support a standing army at the South for its protection; and they 
seize the slave who has escaped into their territories, and send him back 
to be tortured by an enraged master or a brutal driver. 

This relation to slavery is criminal, and full of danger: IT MUST BE 
BROKEN UP. 

These are our views and principles — these our designs and measures. 
With entire confidence in the overruling justice of God, we plant ourselves 
upon the Declaration of Independence and the truth of Divme Revelation as 
upon the Everlasting Rock. 

We shall organize Anti-Slavery Societies, if possible, in every city, town 
and village in our land. 

We shall send forth agents to lift up the voice of remonstrance, of 
warning, of entreaty and of rebuke. 

We shall circulate, unsparingly and extensively, anti-slavery tracts and 
periodicals. 

We shall enlist the pulpit and the press in the cause of the suffering and 
the dumb. 

We shall aim at a purification of the churches from all participation in 
the guilt of slavery. 

We shall encourage the labor of freemen rather than that of slaves, by 
giving a preference to their productions: and 

We shall spare no exertions nor means to bring the whole nation to 
speedy repentance. 

Our trust for victory is solely in God. We may be personally defeated, 
but our principles, never! Truth, Justice, Reason, Humanity must and will 
gloriously triumph. Already a host is coming up to the help of the Lord 
against the mighty, and the prospect before us is full of encouragement. 

Submitting this Declaration to the candid examination of the people of 
this country, and of the friends of liberty throughout the world, we hereby 
affix our signatures to it; pledging ourselves that, under the guidance and by 
the help of Almighty God, we will do all that in us lies, consistently with this 
Declaration of our principles, to overthrow the most execrable system of 
slavery that has ever been witnessed upon earth; to deliver our land from 
its deadliest curse; to wipe out the foulest stain which rests upon our 
national escutcheon; and to secure to the colored population of the United 
States all the rights and privileges which belong to them as men and as 
Americans — come what may to our persons, our interests, or our reputa- 
tions—whether we live to witness the triumph of Liberty, Justice and 
Humanity, or perish untimely as martyrs in this great, benevolent and holy 
cause. 



Sonnet to Clbert^ 



They tell me, LIBERTY! that, in thy name, 

I may not plead for all the human race; 

That some are born to bondage and disgrace, 

Some to a heritage of woe and shame, 

And some to power supreme, and glorious fame. 

With my whole soul I spurn the doctrine base, 

And, as an equal brotherhood, embrace 

All people, and for all fair freedom claim! 

Know this, O man! whate'er thy earthly fate — 

GOD NEVER MADE A TYRANT, NOR A SLAVE : 

Woe, then, to those who dare to desecrate 

His glorious image! — for to all He gave 

Eternal rights, which none may violate; 

And, by a mighty hand, th' oppressed He yet shall save. 



13 




A66re5s to tlye Jfree 4^eofU of (Tolor, 1831 



NEVER rise to address a colored audience without feeling 
ashamed of my own color; ashamed of being identified with a 
race of men who have done you so much injustice, and who 
yet retain so large a portion of your brethren in servile 
chains. To make atonement, in part, for this conduct, I have 
solemnly dedicated my health and strength, and life, to your 
service. I love to plan and to work for your social, intellec- 
tual, political and spiritual advancement. My happiness is augmented with 
yours: in your sufferings I participate. 

Henceforth I am ready on all days, on all convenient occasions, in 
all suitable places, before any sect or party, at whatever perils to my 
person, character, or interest, to plead the cause of my colored coun- 
trymen in particular, and of human rights in general. For this purpose, 
there is no day too holy, no place improper, no body of men too inconsider- 
able to address. For this purpose I ask no church to grant me authority to 
speak — I require no ordination — I am not careful to consult Martin Luther, 
or John Calvin, or His Holiness the Pope. It is a duty which, as a lover of 
justice, I am bound to execute; as a lover of my fellow-men, I ought not to 
shun; as a lover of Jesus Christ, and of his equalizing, republican and 
benevolent precepts, I rejoice to meet. * * * 

It is not probable that I shall be able to satisfy the great body of the 
people of my own color otherwise than by entirely abandoning the cause of 
emancipation. They who do not hesitate to call me a madman, a fanatic, a 
disturber of the peace, a promoter of rebellion, — among other charitable 
epithets, — for vindicating the rights of the slaves, will naturally be offended 
if I presume to stand up in behalf of the free people of color or to address 
them on a subject appertaining to their welfare. I am determined, neverthe- 
less, to give slaveholders and their apologists as much uneasiness as possible. 
They shall hear me, and of me, and from me, in a tone and with a frequency 
that shall make them tremble. There shall be no neutrals: men shall either 
like me or dislike me. 
• •*••***** 

Whenever you can, put your children to trades. A good trade is better 
than a fortune, because when once obtained, it cannot be taken away. I 
know the diflQculties under which you labor, in regard to this matter. I 
know how unwilling master mechanics are to receive your children, and the 
strength of that vulgar prejudice which reigns in the breasts of the working 
classes. But by perseverance in your applications, you may often succeed 
in procuring valuable situations for your children. As strong as prejudice is 
in the human breast, there is another feeling yet stronger — and that is, 
selfishness. Place two mechanics by the side of each other — one colored, and 
the other white: he who works the cheapest and best, will get the most 
custom. In making a bargain, the color of a man will never be consulted. 
Now, there can be no reason why your sons should fail to make as ingenious 
and industrious mechanics as any white apprentices; and when they once get 
trades, they will be able to accumulate money; money begets influence, and 
influence respectability. Influence, wealth and character will certainly 
destroy these prejudices which now separate you from society. 

Get as much education as possible for yourselves and your offspring. Toil 
long and hard for it as for a pearl of great price. An ignorant people can 
never occupy any other than a degraded station in society; they can never 
be truly free until they are intelligent. It is an old maxim that knowledge is 
power; and not only is it power, but rank, wealth, dignity and protection. 
That capital brings the highest interest to a city, state or nation (as the 
case may be), which is invested in schools, academies and colleges. The 
greatest gift which a parent can bestow upon his child, is a knowledge of the 
alphabet. He who can read, may feel that he is elevated above all the kingly 
blockheads in the world. If I had children, rather than that they should grow 
up in ignorance, I would feed upon bread and water, and repose upon the cold 
earth: I would sell my teeth, or extract the blood from my veins. 

14 



^66re55 In TCon6on, 1833 

(On l)ls first vUlt to ^England) 



AM proud to say that the funds for my mission to this country 
were principally made up by the voluntary contributions of 
my free colored brethren, at very short notice. I stand before 
you as their mouthpiece, and with their blessings resting 
upon my head. Persecuted, derided, yet noble people! never 
can I repay generosity and love like theirs. Sir, I am sorry 
to trespass a moment longer upon this meeting, but I beg a 
brief indulgence that I may discharge an act of justice toward that perse- 
cuted class. You have heard them described this day, by the American 
Colonization Society, as the most abandoned wretches on the face of the 
earth — as constituting all that is vile, loathsome and dangerous; as being 
more degraded and miserable than the slaves. Sir, it is not possible for the 
mind to coin, or the tongue to utter, baser libels against an injured people. 
Their condition is as much superior to that of the slaves as the light of 
heaven is more cheering than the darkness of the pit. Many of their number 
are in the most affluent circumstances, and distinguished for their refinement, 
enterprise and talents. They have flourishing churches, supplied by pastors 
of their own color, in various parts of the land, embracing a large body of the 
truly excellent of the earth. They have public and private libraries. They 
have their temperance societies, their debating societies, their moral socie- 
ties, their literary societies, their benevolent societies, their savings 
societies, and a multitude of kindred associations. They have their 
infant schools, their primary and high schools, their Sabbath schools, 
and their Bible classes. They contribute to the support of foreign 
and domestic missions, to Bible and tract societies, etc. In fact, they are 
rising up, even with mountains of prejudice piled upon them, with more than 
Titanic strength, and trampling beneath their feet the slanders of their 
enemies. A spirit of virtuous emulation is pervading their ranks, from the 
young child to the gray head. Among them is taken a large number of 
daily and weekly newspapers, and of literary and scientific periodicals. I 
have at this moment, to my own paper, the "Liberator," one thousand sub- 
scribers among this people; and, from an occupancy of the editorial chair 
for more than seven years, I can testify that they are more punctual in their 
payments than any five hundred white subscribers whose names I ever placed 
Indiscriminately in my subscription book. 




I? 



Bbe Uubllee, IS65 




ZXbbrtss lit ^^oston on tl)e passage of tl)e Z3l)lrtftentl) "l^mcndmint 
to t^e (Tonstltutlon. aboUsblitg slavarj 

X the long course of history, there are events of such trans- 
cendent sublimity and importance as to make all human 
SDeech utterly inadequate to portray the emotions they excite. 
The event we are here to celebrate is one of these grand, 
inspiring, glorious, beyond all power of utterance, and far- 
reaching beyond all finite computation. 

Sir, no such transition of feeling and sentiment as has 
taken place within the last four years, stands recorded on the historic page; 
a change that seems as absolute as it is stupendous. Allow me to confess 
that, in view of it, and of the mighty consequences that must result from it 
to unborn generations, I feel to-night in a thoroughly methodistical state of 
mind — disposed at the top of my voice, and to the utmost stretch of my lungs, 
to shout, "Glory!" "Alleluia!" "Amen and amen!" Gladly and gratefully 
would I exclaim with one of old: "The Lord hath done great things for us, 
whereof we are glad." With the rejoicing Psalmist I would say to the old 
and the young, "O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy 
endureth forever. To him alone that doeth great wonders; for his mercy 
endureth forever. To him that overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red 
sea; for his mercy endureth forever. And brought out Israel from among 
them, with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm; for his mercy 
endureth forever. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord." 

Friends and strangers stop me in the street, daily, to congratulate me on 
having been permitted to live to witness the almost miraculous change which 
has taken place in the feelings and sentiments of the people on the subject of 
slavery, and in favor of the long rejected but ever just and humane doctrine 
of immediate and universal emancipation. Ah, sir, no man living better 
understands or more joyfully recognizes the vastness of that change than I 
do. But most truly can I say that it causes within me no feelings of per- 
sonal pride or exultation — God forbid! But I am unspeakably happy to 
believe, not only that this vast assembly, but that the great mass of my 
countrymen, are now heartily disposed to admit that, in disinterestedly seek- 
ing, by all righteous instrumentalities, for more than thirty years, the utter 
abolition of slavery, I have not acted the part of a madman, fanatic, incen- 
diary, or traitor, but have at all times been of sound mind, a true friend of 
liberty and humanity, animated by the highest patriotism, and devoted to the 
welfare, peace, unity and ever increasing prosperity and glory of my native 
land! And the same verdict you will render in vindication of the clear- 
sighted, untiring, intrepid, unselfish, uncompromising anti-slavery phalanx, 
who, through years of conflict and persecution — misrepresented, misunder- 
stood, ridiculed, and anathematized from one end of the country to the other 
— have labored "in season and out of season" to bring about this glorious 
result. You will, I venture to think and say, agree with me, that only 
RADICAL ABOLITIONISM is, at this trial-hour, LOYALTY, JUSTICE, 
IMPARTIAL FREEDOM, NATIONAL SALVATION— the Golden Rule blended 
with the Declaration of Independence! * * * 

Do we realize the grandeur of the event we are assembled to celebrate? 
It is not merely Negro emancipation, but universal emancipation. It is not 
merely disenthralling four millions, but thirty-four millions. It is not merely 
liberating bodies, but souls — outwardly and inwardly alike. It is an act, not 
in hostility to the South, but for the general welfare — the good of the whole 
country. It is not to depress or injure any class, but to promote all human 
interests. In fine, it is the Declaration of Independence, no longer an 
abstract manifesto, containing certain "glittering generalities," simply to vin- 
dicate our Revolutionary fathers for seceding from the mother country; but 
it is that Declaration CONSTITUTIONALIZED— made the SUPREME LAW 
OF THE LAND — for the protection of the rights and liberties of all who 
dwell on the American soil. 

i6 



^66re55 to lh<^ JF'ree6meit of (TbarU^toix, S. (L., 1865 




HAVE no language to express the feelings of my heart on listen- 
ing to your kind and strengthening words, on receiving these 
beautiful tokens of your gratitude, and on looking into the 
faces of this vast multitude, now happily liberated from the 
galling fetters of slavery. Let me say at the outset, "Not 
unto us, not unto us, but unto God be all the glory" for what 
has been done in regard to your emancipation, I have been 
actively engaged in this work for almost forty years— for I began when I was 
quite young to plead the cause of the enslaved in this country. But I never 
expected to look you in the face, never supposed you would hear of anything 
I might do in your behalf. I knew only one thing— all that I wanted to know 
— that you were a grievously oppressed people; and that, on every considera- 
tion of justice, humanity and right, you were entitled to immediate and 
unconditional freedom. 

I hate slavery as I hate nothing else in this world. It is not only a 
crime, but the sum of all criminality; not only a sin, but the sin of sins 
against Almighty God. I cannot be at peace with it at any time, to any extent, 
under any circumstances. That I have been permitted to witness its over- 
throw calls for expression of devout thanksgiving to Heaven. 

It was not on account of your complexion or race, as a people, that I 
espoused your cause, but because you were the children of a common 
Father, created in the same divine image, having the same inalienable rights, 
and as much entitled to liberty as the proudest slaveholder that ever walked 
the earth. 

For many a year I have been an outlaw at the South for your sakes, and 
a large price was set upon my head, simply because I endeavored to remem- 
ber those in bonds as bound with them. Yes — God is my Witness! — I have 
faithfully tried, in the face of the fiercest opposition and under the most 
depressing circumstances, to make your cause my cause; my wife and chil- 
dren your wives and children, subjected to the same outrage and degradation; 
myself on the same auction block, to be sold to the highest bidder. Thank 
God, this day you are free! And be resolved that, once free, you will be free 
forever. No — not one of you ever will, ever can, consent again to be a bond- 
man. Liberty or death, but never slavery! * * * 

* * * O, be assured, I never doubted that I had the gratitude and 
affection of the entire colored population of the United States, even though 
personally unknown to so many of them; because I knew that upon me 
heavily rested the wrath and hatred of your cruel oppressors. I was sure, 
therefore, if I had them against me, I had you with me. * * * Long as I 
have labored in your behalf, while God gives me reason and strength, I shall 
demand for you everything I claim for the whitest of the white in this 
country. 



17 




^66re55 in Cou6on, IS67 



OR more than thirty years I had to look the fierce and unre- 
lenting hostility of my countrymen in the face, with few to 
cheer me onward. In all the South I was an outlaw, and could 
not have gone there, though an American citizen guiltless of 
wrong, and though that flag had been over my head, except at 
the peril of my life; nay with the certainty of finding a bloody 
grave. In all the North I was looked upon with hatred and 
-contempt. The whole nation, subjugated to the awful power of slavery, rose 
up in moboeratic tumult against any and every effort to liberate the millions 
held in bondage on its soil. And yet I demanded nothing that was not per- 
fectly just and reasonable — in exact accordance with the Declaration of 
Independence and the Golden Rule. I was not the enemy of any man living. 
I cherish no personal enmities; I know nothing of them in my heart. Even 
whilst the Southern slaveholders were seeking my destruction I never for a 
moment entertained any other feeling toward them than an earnest desire, 
under God, to deliver them from a deadly curse and an awful sin. It was 
neither a sectional nor a personal matter at all; it had exclusive reference 
to the eternal law of justice between man and man, and the rights of human 
nature itself. * * * 

I must here disclaim, with all sincerity of soul, any special praise for 
anything that I have done. I have simply tried to maintain the integrity of 
my soul before God, and to do my duty. I have refused to go with the 
multitude to do evil. I have endeavored to save my country from ruin. But 
then I ought to have done it all; and, having done it all, I feel it is nothing 
to speak of, nothing to be complimented upon. We ought to do our duty 
always — we ought to rejoice if even through persecution, if even through the 
cross, we are compelled to look duty in the face. * * * 

I am unable to express the satisfaction I feel in believing that, hence- 
forth, my country will be a mighty power for good in the world. While she 
held a seventh portion of her vast population in a state of chattelism, it was 
in vain that she boasted of her democratic principles and her free institu- 
tions; ostentatiously holding her Declaration of Independence in one hand, 
and brutally wielding her slave-driving lash in the other! Marvelous incon- 
sistency and unparalleled assurance! But now, God be praised, she is free — 
free to advance the cause of liberty throughout the world! * * * 

Henceforth, through all coming time, advocates of justice and friends of 
reform, be not discouraged; for you will and you must succeed, if you have a 
righteous cause. No matter at the outset how few may be disposed to rally 
round the standard you have raised — if you battle unflinchingly and without 
compromise — if yours be a faith that cannot be shaken, because it is linked 
to the Eternal Throne — it is only a question of time when victory shall come 
to reward your toils. Seemingly, no system of iniquity was ever more 
strongly intrenched, or more sure and absolute in its sway, than that of 
American slavery; yet it has perished. 

In the earthquake God has spoken: 

He has smitten with His thunder 

The iron walls asunder. 
And the gates of brass are broken. 

So it has been, so it is, so it ever will be throughout the earth, in every 
conflict for the right. 



i8 



Xi^ords of <&arrl5on 



< 



-f 



/^ As to our moral obligation, it belongs to our nature, and is a part of 
/ our accountability, of which neither time nor distance, neither climate nor 
/ location, neither republican nor monarchical government, can divest us. Let 
I there be but one slave on the face of the globe — let him stand on one extrem- 
I ity of the globe, and place me on the other — let every people, and tribe, and 
\ clime, and nation stand as barriers between him and myself: still, I am 
\ bound to sympathize with him — to pray, and toil, and plead for his deliver- 
\ ance — to make known his wrongs, and vindicate his rights. 

I have been derisively called a "Woman's Rights Man." I know no such 

distinction. I claim to be a HUMAN RIGHTS MAN; and whenever there is 

a human being, I see God-given rights inherent in that being, whatever may 

be_the sex or complexion. ^ 

^ /^"""^ With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but 

/\ f to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will cer- 

\tainly be lost. 

What is the proposition to be discussed? It is this: whether all men are 
created free and equal, and have an inalienable right to liberty! I am urged 
to argue this with a people who declare it to be a self-evident truth! Why, 
such folly belongs to Bedlam. 

I never debate the question as to whether man may hold property in^ i 
man. I never degrade myself by debating the question, "Is slavery a sin?" / A 
It is a self-evident truth, which God hath engraven on our very nature, j 
Where I see the holder of a slave, I charge the sin upon him, and I denouncey 
him. ^ 

y V I am in earnest — ^I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not | s 
SL (retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD. y * 

I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. 
I shall use great plainness of speech — believing that truth can never 
conduce to mischief, and is best discovered by plain words. 

It is my lot to be branded throughout this country as an agitator, a 
fanatic, an incendiary, and a madman. There is one epithet, I fervently 
desire to thank God, that has never been applied to me: 1 have never been 
stigmatized as a slaveholder, or as an apologist of slavery. 



JPree6om of tl)e Mtl!t6 

t 

And iron grates oDstruct the prisoner's gaze. 



X \ High walls and huge the BODY may confine, 



iQ 



N^ And massive bolts may baffle his design, 

And vigilant keepers watch his devious ways; 
Yet scorns th' immortal MIND this base control! 

No chains can bind it, and no cell enclose: 
Swifter than light, it flies from pole to pole. 

And, in a flash, from earth to heaven it goes! 
It leaps from mount to mount — from vale to vale 

It wanders, plucking honeyed fruits and flowers; 
It visits home, to hear the fireside tale, 

Or in sweet converse pass the joyous hours; 
'Tis up before the sun, roaming afar. 

And, in its watches, wearies every star! 

Our trust for victory is solely in God. We may be personally defeated, y 
but our principles never! y 

My reliance for the deliverance of the oppressed universally is upon the 
nature of man, the inherent wrongfulness of oppression, the power of truth, 
and the omnipotence of God — using every rightful instrumentality to hasten 
the jubilee. 

19 



I believe in the spirit of peace, and in sole and absolute reliance on truth 
and the application of it to the hearts and consciences of the people. I do 
not believe that the weapons of liberty ever have been, or ever can be, the 
weapons of despotism. 

I am as much interested in the safety and welfare of the slaveholders, 
as brother-men, as I am in the liberation of their poor slaves. 

We know not where to look for Christianity if not to its founder; and, 
taking the record of his life and death, of his teaching and example, we can 
discover nothing which even remotely, under any conceivable circumstances, 
justifies the use of the sword or rifle on the part of his followers; on the 
contrary, we find nothing but self-sacrifice, willing martyrdom (if need be), 
peace and good-will, and the prohibition of all retaliatory feelings enjoined 
upon all who would be his disciples. When he said: "Fear not those who 
kill the body," he broke every deadly weapon. When he said: "My kingdom 
is not of this world, else would my servants fight that I should not be deliv- 
ered to the Jews," he plainly prohibited war in self-defense, and substituted 
martyrdom therefor. When he said: "Love your enemies," he did not mean. 
"Kill them if they go too far." When he said, while expiring on the cross: 
"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," he did not treat 
them as "a herd of buffaloes," but as poor, misguided, and lost men. We 
believe in his philosophy; we accept his instruction; we are thrilled by his 
example; we rejoice in his fidelity. How touching is the language of James! 
"Ye have condemned and killed THE JUST; and he doth not resist you." 
And how melting to the soul is the declaration: "He was led as a lamb to the 
slaughter!" And again: "God commendeth his love towards us in that, while 
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 

Of what value are professions where fruits are wanting? or what need of 
professions where fruits abound? 

No man who has not consecrated all his time to the service of God has 
ever consecrated a seventh part of it. * * * No man who reverently 
regards all days as holy unto the Lord will desecrate either the first or the 
seventh day of the week. 

The natural rights of one human being are those of every other, in all 
cases equally sacred and inalienable; hence the boasted "Rights of Man," 
about which we hear so much, are simply the "Rights of Woman," of which 
we hear so little; or, in other words, they are the Rights of Humanity, neither 
affected by, nor dependent upon, sex or condition. 

It is the best investment for the soul's welfare possible, to take hold of 
omething which is righteous but unpopular. Righteous but unpopular, for 
men may get hold of an unpopular cause which deserves to be unpopular 
I and is not righteous. 



■5/ 



<'/: 




%lograpl)le5 of (Barrison 



The Words of Garrison. A Centennial selection (1805-1905) of character- 
istic sentiments from the writings of William Lloyd Garrison, with a bio- 
graphical sketch, portrait, bibliography and chronology. Houghton, Mifflin & 
Co., Boston. Price $1.25. 

William Lloyd Garrison and His Times. By Oliver Johnson. With por- 
trait and an introduction by John G. Whittier. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & 
Co. Price $2.00. 

William Lloyd Garrison: The Story of His Life Told By His Children. 
4 volumes. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Price $8.00. 

This contains six portraits of Garrison, and many more of his principal 
coadjutators on both sides of the Atlantic; maps, facsimiles of handwriting, 
etc. It is the quarry from which all subsequent lives have necessarily been 
constructed. 

William Lloyd Garrison, the Abolitionist. By Archibald H. Grimke, with 
portrait. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Price $1.50. 

The Moral Crusader, William Lloyd Garrison. A biographical essay 
founded on The Story of Garrison's Life, Told By His Children. By Goldwin 
Smith, D. C. L., with portrait. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Price $1.00. 



20 



PRESS OF E. A. WRIGHT 
PHKADELPHIA, PA. 



As^^iJ^^^ 



So far as i am personally concerned, I feel no interest In any history of it (the anti- 
slavery struggle) that may be written. It is enough for me that every yoke is brolcen and 
every bondman set free. Yet there are lessons to be drawn from it tttat cannot fail to be 
serviceable to posterity. The millennial state, if it ever come on earth, is yet in the far 
distant future. There are innumerable battles yet to be fought for the right, many wrongs 
to be redressed, many evil customs abolished, many usurpations overthrown, many deliver- 
ances wrought; and those who shall hereafter go forth to defend fhe righteous cause, no 
matter at what cost or with what disparity of numbers, cannot fail to derive strength and 
inspiration from an intelligent acquaintance with the means and methods used in the anti- 
slavery movement. 



W. L. GARRISON, 1873 



°-^??^^^^^ 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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